Alarm question

TKK

I bought a house about a month ago and decided to change all the locks and the alarm code. Now I have been experiencing difficulty in getting a hold of the crowd whose name is on the alarm but finally got him yesterday evening.

He said he would have to call out and put the unit into engineering mode for me (I figured as much as it would be easy money for him ). When I asked if I could have the engineering code he laughed and asked if I seriously expected him to give me the code to all the alarms. I told him that I expected there to be a seperate code for each installation but he reckoned that he has fitted over 5000 alarms and how could he have a seperate code for each.

To me that's not right. If some unscrupulous person(s) were to discover this and extract the code from him they would then be able to access and disable the alarms in all of those houses (including at least 4 in my estate alone).

Does anyone know if this is common practice? Should I be bothered by this?

If this situation should be remedied what are my options. Can I get the alarm reset/flashed to factory settings?

garyh3

Hi TKK,

The way I look at it is that if you buy the alarm from a company and its NOT monitored they why should they have the engineering code for your alarm. Its not as if you have a contract with them to fix your alarm. I paid 1k for our alarm and told the guy before he put it in that I wanted the engineering code and that I would give him the code if anything needed to be done to the alarm. He was ok with this. The other issue is that if he goes bust/retires etc then how would you get the code ?

If he's not willing to give you that engineering code then ask him to change the code so that you know what the code is and that its different from his other codes.

Garyh3

delly

The engineering code can only be used while the alarm is disarmed, i.e. your own alarm code takes priority if the alarm is on.

prospect

Obviously the engineering code can be changed, so get him to come out and change the code.

garyh3

Without the engineering code you cannot change anything on the system not ever you own code. IF I have guest then I can setup a guest code so that they can dissame the alarm or If I have want to trun off the PIR's then I can setup zones etc

At the moment TKK has to call the alarm guy out to make any changes to the system (At a cost) If you own the alarm then you should have the engineering code.

Garyh3

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Woudl the engineering code be set by the manufacturer, if so, google might be of assistance if there has been a leak.

garyh3

Nope they may have an administrator code but all the "Jonny alarm guys" who sell virtually the same alarm set there own engineering code AND is always the same for the 500 other alarms that the guy has installed.

Garyh3

Lex Luthor

what make alarm is it? If its an Aritech the default code is 1278....try that

TKK

It's an HKC alarm. I'm not happy that he has the code though I am happier to see that my code is still required to disarm the alarm.

As garyh3 has pointed out there are a couple of things that you need the engineers code for. I don't see why I should have to pay out every time I want to change something. Then there's also the problem of having to be at home to let him in - I'm sure he doesn't do much work after seven when I typically get home.

prospect

Why can you not pay him to come out once, and input his code, then get him to do whatever is required to change the engineering code, tell him to turn away and you input your new engineering code? Job done, you now have the new code and he doesn't.

TKK

Faced with the prospect of loss of callout charges I wonder if that will work.

prospect

Its your alarm.

garyh3

thats the whole point you pay for the alarm. Its your alarm. You should be able to do whatever you want to do. I also have the HKC also and there are about 50 different changes you can do, especially the sensivitiy of each of the sensors. You can also test the sensors with the engineer code.

Garyh3

Hamlet

TKK wrote:

It's an HKC alarm. I'm not happy that he has the code though I am happier to see that my code is still required to disarm the alarm.

As garyh3 has pointed out there are a couple of things that you need the engineers code for. I don't see why I should have to pay out every time I want to change something. Then there's also the problem of having to be at home to let him in - I'm sure he doesn't do much work after seven when I typically get home.

Hi TKK

Not having a go at you i do understand that people pay for the system you would think they should get the the engineering code but people like to play with alarm system put in new settings without any knowledge of what there are doing and then when the system is not working they call an engineer out a say it just went haywire

when i install a non contract system i have no problem in changing the engineering code after 1 year to a code that your want

on most alarms there is a manager menu hkc alarms has it if the engineer has programmed this menu you will be able to change some features on your system including user codes

to access manager menu input 0 user code
if the system starts to arm then its not setup
if the system displays full arm then press the next button until it displays manager menu press yes press next till you find user codes press yes

U1 code in use to change this press yes enter code press yes repeat code press yes

to exit press quit until you see exit press yes

new code has now been changed

Hope this helps you


Paul.

TKK

No offence taken though I wouldn't exactly be continuously screwing it up. I've been working on computer systems for years and have come up against more complicated without screwing anything up. As a result of my experiences, even if I did have to call an engineer I'd be quick to explain what I was at (I've been that soldier trying to figure out what the user did ).

I have already tried what you suggest and, no, it's not setup to allow me to do anything more than arm and disarm the alarm.

GristlyEnd

Default engineers code for HKC is 4567

Hamlet

TKK wrote:

No offence taken though I wouldn't exactly be continuously screwing it up. I've been working on computer systems for years and have come up against more complicated without screwing anything up. As a result of my experiences, even if I did have to call an engineer I'd be quick to explain what I was at (I've been that soldier trying to figure out what the user did ).

I have already tried what you suggest and, no, it's not setup to allow me to do anything more than arm and disarm the alarm.

Hi tkk

2 options left

1. pay the engineer to come out ask him to change the engineering code to one you want

2. default the panel back to factory settings and reprogram it

tbh first option is the best one to take IMO less hassle


Paul

dingding

Try 01278 It is the default engineers code for my alarm and was set during manufacture.